Dutchmen them. Soak them in a ton of glue, lay them out, and crumple away. Put them down on plastic so they don't stick to your floor. This will only work with a lighly woven fabric, musilin works great.

We did this thing in my theatre, but it was with different material. I'm not sure exactly how it will work with yours. But ehre's what we did. We took the fabric, and twisted it. Then, we soaked it, twisted, in hot water, and then let it dry out twisted. Then, we unfolded it, and twisted it again, in a different direction, and soaked it again. We did that about 7 times. On the last soak, don't unfold it once it's dry. We cut off the bottom hem, and pulled the weave apart, making fringe, and cut the fringe into different lengths. Untwist the cloth, and we had an old, wrinkled, falling apart border and background. It's time consuming, but it worked for us. Hopefully, it will work for you, too.

Using diluted whie glue is one way to go , using a mixture of diluted white glue and corn starch is another. mix it all up in a #3 washtub, wring it out real well, and layout to dry in it's final shape.

Van J. McQueen
Project Manager
Stagecraft Industries, Inc."The only Dumb Question is the one you don't ask."All opinions expressed here by Van J. McQueen are his and his alone, and do not representthe official opinions, positions or Values of Stagecraft Industries, Inc. So there, Nyah!

Using diluted whie glue is one way to go , using a mixture of diluted white glue and corn starch is another. mix it all up in a #3 washtub, wring it out real well, and layout to dry in it's final shape.

Click to expand...

Van, I'm going to be a pain and request metric please. Is white glue what we know as PVA (Poly vinyl acetate)? And such guidance on what a #3 washtub is if you could...

As for the washtub, thats an example. Basically get something big that you can easily run all the fabric through. The key is to drench the fabric. Be aware, in type of nap that the fabric naturally has will be put down by the glue.

#3 Washtub = You know the kind Jethro makes a washtub bass out of. Grapes of Wrath. It'd be about 2 feet in Diameter or .06096 dekameters.

Van J. McQueen
Project Manager
Stagecraft Industries, Inc."The only Dumb Question is the one you don't ask."All opinions expressed here by Van J. McQueen are his and his alone, and do not representthe official opinions, positions or Values of Stagecraft Industries, Inc. So there, Nyah!

Yeah the question has been answered and now we are just wasting space on the internet. These words will exist in the electronic universe like forever man... and yet I had absolutely no reason to write them. In fact, the fact that I'm about to say "Treaty of Versailles" means it's likely these words have never been put together in this order before... and to be sure these words have never been used like this before I say "Ni" to you.